1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus for recording an image on a recording material in accordance with image data.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, there is known at image recording apparatus, such as a facsimile apparatus, in which for example, image data is produced by decoding encoded data stored in an image memory. All of the produced image data are transferred to a recording unit, without regard to the presence or absence of black information in the image data. A record processing is effected in accordance with the thus transferred image data.
However, according to the recording scheme by the above mentioned conventional image recording apparatus, if a printer unit used as the recording unit is such an inexpensive printer that a considerable time is required for image processing, a recording speed will slow down.
For example, in a case where there is used a printer unit provided with a recording head having a plurality of dot recording means arranged in a vertical direction, the recording head being scanned in a horizontal direction (main scan direction) while a recording sheet being fed in a vertical direction (sub-scan direction) for the recording, implementation of the recording process in spite of the fact that the whole one scan of data indicate white-information means that the recording head is scanned for recording white data alone. That is, the useless scanning operation is carried out, and thus this needs useless processing time. Particularly, it is significant for a facsimile apparatus or the like to reduce time for the recording process from such a view point that occurrence of lack of image memories for storing the received image data is avoided.